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MICHIGAN AS A PROVINCE 1 - 5
Cadillac had entered into a contract with the Company of the Colony of Canada with reference to the fur trading rights of his new post, but there appears to have been more or less friction in carrying out its terms. The Company agreed to make certain improvements and furnish certain supplies. There were indications that the fur market in France had been glutted and that prices had fallen so low as to make hunting unprofitable. At the same time the English at Albany were ready to take all the peltries offered and to pay good prices and also to sell to the natives such merchandise as they coveted for less than the French were charging. There were other sources of trouble. We have already seen that when Cadillac was stationed at Michilimackinac the liquor question was a disturbing one. The Versailles authorities at the instigation of the Jesuit missionaries, had prohibited the sale of brandy. Against this ironclad order Cadillac protested and he made an argument
showing that in such a climate as this a little liquor is essential to good health. But there was no denying that the savage had a great appetite for fire water, and that when he was filled up with it he was a most uncomfortable, not to say dangerous, neighbor. But it was the moderate, not the excessive, use of the stimulant which Cadillac favored. Therefore, when he had the matter in his own hands he undertook to restrict the amount of drinking by locking up all the liquor in the storehouse and providing that it should be drunk only there, and in quantity not exceeding one 24th of a quart at one time. The price was almost high enough to be prohibitive, and moreover each applicant for a drink must be served only in the order of his application. We still have restrictions of the liquor traffic, but they have been modified somewhat.
MICHIGAN
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